The Castle of Conjo
"Hello!"
Twink, Tom, and Twiffle stopped in their tracks. From out of nowhere
had suddenly appeared a man of medium height with rosy cheeks,
twinkling blue eyes, shaggy hair and clothing that, while it was
composed of the finest silks and satins, was nevertheless a mass of
shags and bobtails.
Twiffle was so surprised he found it impossible to speak. Twink was
regarding the stranger seriously. Suddenly recognition lighted up her
eyes. "Oh, it can't be!" the little girl cried. "You just can't be the
famous Shaggy Man of Oz!"
The Shaggy Man smiled. "Don't know about the famous part, but I am
known as the Shaggy Man, and until a few seconds ago I was in the Land
of Oz."
"Oh! Seeing you here made me think maybe this was a part of the Land
of Oz," said Twink, who had begun to hope since the moment she had
recognized the Shaggy Man.
Tom was regarding the new arrival curiously. "Yes," he said, "you
certainly do look just like your pictures in the books. How did you get
here so fast?--magic? I suppose the Land of Oz is quite a distance."
"Right, both times!" replied the Shaggy Man. "Ozma sent me here with
her Magic Belt, and the Land of Oz is many miles away from here."
"Why did Ozma send you?" asked Twink.
"Oh, I have a little business with this Conjo fellow," answered the
Shaggy Man.
"You have business with Conjo?" Twiffle had recovered from his
astonishment. "Then you must forgive me for not greeting you more
properly. It is so seldom that we have visitors on the island."
"Looks like you already have two visitors," observed the Shaggy Man,
staring at Twink and Tom.
"Yes, but they were expected--and invited," pointed out Twiffle primly.
"However, since you have business with Conjo, and we are on our way to
see him, there is no reason you should not accompany us."
"No reason whatever," agreed the Shaggy Man. "I hope this Conjo has
plenty of big red apples."
"Why?" asked Tom.
"They happen to be my favorite food, that's all," explained the Shaggy
Man.
Led by Twiffle, the Shaggy Man and the two children were advancing
over the meadow toward the Castle of Conjo. The sun was now setting,
burnishing the spires and turrets of the castle with rich hues of gold
and copper. The Shaggy Man judged they had less than a half a mile to
travel to the castle doors.
"Don't you children think introductions are in order?" asked the Shaggy
Man, "since you seem to know me already."
"Well," Twink began, "this is Twiffle who is a third cousin of Twoffle."
Twiffle bowed briefly and the Shaggy Man nodded.
"And this is Tom, and I am Twink. We live in Buffalo."
"Wait a minute," interrupted the Shaggy Man. "How did you happen to get
a name like Twink?"
"Twink and Tom are not our real names," explained Tom. "Our parents
named us Abbadiah and Zebbidiah."
"Why did they do that?" asked the Shaggy Man indignantly.
"Well," Tom went on, "they didn't expect twins--we are twins, you
know--and they couldn't make up their minds what to name us. So they
just picked names at the beginning and end of the alphabet. That's how
we came to be named from A to Z."
The Shaggy Man sighed.
"And then," Twink carried on, "I began to toddle when I was supposed
to be still crawling, and everyone called me Twink, because I got from
one place to another in a twinkle. Tom got his nickname in a funny way,
too."
"I have always been interested in everything mechanical and
electrical," explained Tom, "so when I was only two years old and took
my toy phonograph apart to see where the little men and women who made
the talking and music were, my Father said: 'Why, you're a regular
little Tom Edison.' And so ever since then I have been Tom."
"At least they are better than those other names," said the Shaggy Man.
Conjo's castle loomed even larger, casting lengthening shadows, as the
sun lowered behind it. In a few more minutes Twiffle had led them to a
large door that was evidently the entrance of the castle. Hanging on
the door was a sign which Twink, Tom, and the Shaggy Man read.
CASTLE OF CONJO
WORKING WIZARD
"This way, please," said Twiffle. The door opened at his touch, and
they entered.
All they could see was a vast corridor with doors on each side. At the
end of the corridor was a handsome marble staircase that wound to the
upper floors.
Twiffle's little wooden feet pattered busily down the polished marble
floor of the corridor, until he came to an arch-shaped doorway upon
which hung the sign:
QUIET!
WIZARD AT WORK
As they paused before this door with its strange admonition, the Shaggy
Man and his friends heard a sound that reminded them of a buzz-saw.
"I wonder," ventured Twink, "if Conjo is building some new magical
machine?"
Twiffle disregarded the little girl's question and proceeded to push
the door which opened as easily as had the door of the castle.
Inside they found a vast, domed room. All around the sides of the
room was a series of tables, work-benches, and tall cabinets. The
tables and benches were filled with every kind of chemical instrument
imaginable--beakers, retorts, test tubes, hundreds of bottles of
different kinds of colored liquids, crucibles, and a series of burners
over which simmered vials and pots of chemical mixtures. From these
rose vari-colored vapors, filling the room with a pungent haze. The
cabinet shelves were crowded and jumbled with thousands of containers
of various powders, ointments, and mixtures used by wizards in working
their magic spells. One cabinet contained nothing but books of magic
recipes and formulas--everything from changing people into door-knobs
to curing headaches.
The Shaggy Man and the children had scarcely glanced at all this array
of tools and materials for working magic, when their attention was
drawn to a huge divan that rested in the very middle of the marble
floor of the great chamber. This luxurious divan was covered with the
softest and most expensive of rich velvet robes and comforts. Curled
up in a ball in the midst of the blankets and downy, satin-covered
cushions was a little man. He was snoring.
Twink almost laughed aloud. So this was Conjo, the working Wizard! She
realized now it was Conjo's snoring they had mistaken for the sound of
a buzz-saw.
Twiffle seemed neither surprised nor disturbed to find his master
sound asleep. The little clown trotted over to the handsome divan and,
seizing Conjo by the shoulders, shook him vigorously.
The Shaggy Man was grinning broadly, and Tom was holding a hand over
his mouth to suppress his laughter.
Sputtering and yawning, Conjo sat up on the divan. Since he was rubbing
the sleep out of his eyes with his knuckles, he did not see his guests
for several seconds. Then he blinked, yawned widely, and smiling a
little foolishly said: "Well, wiz my wand if it isn't Twink and Tom."
"You already know us?" asked Twink.
"Oh, goodness yes," replied Conjo, stretching lazily. "Twiffle has been
telling me about you for years--ever since you were mere babies. I let
Twiffle visit your friend Twoffle in your home, you know. Send him
there by my magic," explained Conjo proudly.
Conjo was coming more awake every minute. "Jumping June Bugs!" he
exclaimed as his eyes fell on the Shaggy Man. "I didn't tell Twiffle to
bring your Father along--or is this person your Grandfather?"
"Neither one," said the Shaggy Man with an amused smile. "Your magic
had nothing to do with my coming here, Conjo. I came of my own accord."
"Came from where?" demanded Conjo, and then went on before the Shaggy
Man had a chance to answer: "You were shipwrecked--that must be it, of
course--you are a poor, forlorn castaway--a helpless victim of the deep
and mighty ocean."
"No," contradicted the Shaggy Man, "I was not shipwrecked. I came here
from the Land of Oz."
Conjo started. "The Land of Oz!" he exclaimed incredulously. "You
mean the Emerald City--Ozma--Dorothy--the Scarecrow--the Tin
Woodman--Scraps--Toto----" and then because he was out of breath the
Wizard concluded weakly "and all of that?"
"I see you have heard of the Land of Oz," said the Shaggy Man, "so
perhaps you will know why I am here."
Conjo, who was a fat, bald little man, not much taller than Twink or
Tom, with a fringe of white hair about his pink head, closed his
little eyes, placed a forefinger on his cherry-like nose, and thought
hard.
"You will just have to tell me," he said, opening his eyes and staring
appealingly at the Shaggy Man. "I don't have a single idea. It usually
takes several hours after I wake up before I get any ideas--and it is
so seldom that we have shipwrecks."
"I told you," the Shaggy Man reminded Conjo patiently, "that I was not
shipwrecked. I came here from the Land of Oz to ask you to do me a
favor."
"A favor?" said Conjo, thinking hard. "Why, that is strange indeed!
The last shipwrecked person who was here wanted me to do him a favor,
too. He stayed several months and then wanted to return to his home. He
asked me to make a boat for him. That was an easy trick. And because
the fellow wasn't a bad sort at all, I made him a present--I gave him
one of my newest creations--the Love Magnet."
"The Love Magnet," gasped the Shaggy Man.
"Don't interrupt, please," went on Conjo. "Not polite, you know. This
shipwrecked person tied the Love Magnet onto the mast of his boat and
set sail. Last I ever saw of him. Understand he encountered a whale,
who, upon seeing the man and the Love Magnet, became so fond of the
fellow that he ate him."
Conjo wiped a tear from his eye.
The Shaggy Man wasn't sure whether the Wizard was serious or was poking
fun at him. He decided to pretend, at any rate, that he accepted
Conjo's absurd story, saying, "Well, apparently the unfortunate man's
boat was blown ashore and an Eskimo found the Love Magnet, for it was
an Eskimo who gave it to me, and I took it to the Land of Oz."
"My Love Magnet in the Land of Oz!" exclaimed Conjo.
"No," replied the Shaggy Man, "not _your_ Love Magnet, since you gave
it away. It now belongs to all the people of the Land of Oz. That is
why I am here now. The Love Magnet has been broken. The favor I ask you
is to repair it, since you, its creator, are the only person who can do
that."
Twink and Tom had been listening with deep interest to this
conversation. They had read about the Love Magnet and they were
surprised to learn that it had been broken.
"Of course, of course, my dear Shaggy Man, for I perceive that is
indeed who you are--a quite famous personage of the Land of Oz," Conjo
was wide awake now. "I shall be most happy to mend the Love Magnet if
it can be mended. But surely you don't expect me to do so important and
difficult a feat of magic without--a--er--let us say--a reward?"